The following article was written by Tuck Aikin, a former colleague of mine, several decades ago, but it is as true today as it was then. I hope you enjoy it.
“Chance favors the prepared mind” (Louis Pasteur). “Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.” (Unknown). “Anyone who has a mind changes it now and then.” (Peter Sheldahl).
These amusing and wise aphorisms seem to have little in common, yet for an aspiring business owner, in a round-about way, they describe a personal attitude that all would-be entrepreneurs should assume to succeed in business.
We’ve all heard about how important it is for a business wanna-be to be passionate, driven, knowledgeable, persistent, and have a high tolerance for risk and ambiguity, but there’s another personal discipline that should be included in the list: a willingness to submit to the marketplace.
The idea is similar to the discouraging reality that many nondemocratic countries cannot become democratic simply by voting in openly contested elections. First, each citizen must be willing to submit to the will (the vote) of the majority even if he/she strongly disagrees with the outcome. Without the acceptance of that principle, democracy can’t work (think Iraq and its history of rigid allegiance to family, tribe, clan, religious sect, and language/culture before and in defiance of nationhood and the common good). By the same token, without a willingness to seek out and respond to the often-quiet whisperings of the marketplace, success in business is highly unlikely.
When this point was brought up in a recent SCORE counseling session, we were surprised at the heated response we got from our counselee: “Submit, I’m not going to submit to anything. I’ve got a great product, better than anything out there. They’ll have to come to me if they want it, and they will!” Sadly, our restrained but persistent attempts to persuade our charge to alter his view were unsuccessful.
Evidence that this approach has been embraced by successful businesses, both small and large, is all around. The mighty Halliburton Corporation, about which much has been written after Desert Storm, once stuck strictly to oil field service and supply. Today, it may be the only company in the world large enough and qualified enough to completely rebuild Iraq’s entire destroyed oil industry infrastructure: equipment, logistics, organization, training, security, technology, and people.
Similarly, Hewlett Packard started out in scientific instruments, but today, it is dominant in the manufacture of computer printers and inkjet engine technology. Think too about the constant changes in Nike shoes, Gap apparel, the latest electric toothbrush gizmo, and even the flood of ‘reality’ TV shows (yuk).
Small business seeks out and submits to market demand, too. Locally, there’s the luxury apparel firm that’s become successful in machine embroidery and monogramming, the theater that offers mainstream films along with ‘art’ movies, and the many local restaurants that continuously ‘tweak’ their menus. They all have in common this basic principle of subordinating themselves to whatever the marketplace wants as long as it is within their firm’s area of interest and expertise.
It’s important to understand, too, that these firm’s constant striving to improve and grow is really about survival, not greed. They know if they leave a vacuum in the marketplace, their competitors will fill it if they don’t. That’s why the smart ones check their egos at the door.
So, keep your antenna out all the time to try to see, hear, and, yes, feel the marketplace. Conduct basic research, make some sample offerings, and if the signals look good, expand, shift, and change. And remember, it’s still a guess, so success at something new remains a gamble. But also remember Will Rogers’ observation: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there!”.
Tuck Aikin was a former SCORE colleague of mine for many years until his retirement. Tuck is a prolific writer and wrote small business-themed articles for the Colorado Springs Gazette for many years. As a co-mentor, Tuck was my inspiration for me starting this blog. The preceding post is reproduced with permission from the author.
